How It All Ends
by ReneyyySprouse
Summary: Wendy left South Park two years ago. Stan swore that he would never let himself fall for her again. Because they would only eventually break up - they always did. That was always how it all ended. Wasn't it?
1. Prologue

**Prologue -**

The sound of the doorbell ringing made his ears perk up in excitement. It was the noise he had been waiting to hear all day.

A fifteen year old Stan Marsh hastily bounded off his bed, tossing the comic book he was reading into the corner of his room. He stopped for a sharp moment in front of the small mirror that sat on top of his dresser to take a look at himself. His trusty old red poofball beanie sat nicely on top of his head as he smiled at himself – impressed with the reflection that gazed back at him, but even more enthused to get downstairs to the visitor that was waiting for him.

Just as he was about to let his anticipation get the best of him, Stan spun around on the spot. His wide vision landed on the cup of water sitting on his bedside table and the vibrant, red rose that gently stood up inside it. His heart skipped a beat.

Racing down the stairs, Stan carefully placed the rose into his back pocket as he eventually reached the front door, smiling at his mother who had made it there just before him.

"Stan," Sharon cooed with a teasing smirk, "You have a visitor."

The dark haired teenager rolled his eyes, softly shooing his mum away, "I know Mum, thanks," he managed to say, waiting patiently for Sharon to exit the scene. As soon as she did, Stan swallowed a nervous lump, took a breath and then pulled the front door wide open.

Almost instantly, his stomach flipped, "Hi Wendy!"

Wendy Testaburger was the epitome of beauty. The fifteen year old girl's black hair had grown a few more inches over the years but was still accompanied by her pink beret that sat comfortably on her head. Her pastel blue coloured jacket hugged her growing body perfectly. She was about the same height as Stan, which of course made her look sort of tall, when in reality it was her boyfriend who actually was short for his age. Her cherry coloured lips were calling Stan's name as they spoke a simple 'hi', causing him to eagerly lick his own.

Leaning in towards his girlfriend, his heart rate crept up the second that he could sense Wendy's breath dancing across his skin. Just as he was imagining the familiar sensation of his girlfriend's kiss, Stan heard Wendy's breathing hitch at the very last second before she tilted her head ever so slightly, forcing his lips to instead land on her cheek. Frowning to himself as they separated, Stan soon shook his head, ridding it of the confusing thought. He knew that these past few days for Wendy had been long and enduring.

"I missed you," he spoke into the chilled air, "Do you wanna' come inside?"

Looking up from the ground beneath her feet, Wendy shrugged her shoulders, "I missed you, too," she started with a soft smile, "I was actually going to see if you wanted to go for a walk?"

Stan matched the pleased expression beaming back at him, "Sure," he chirped, closing the front door of his house behind him as the two of them set off down the sidewalk.

Happiness didn't even begin to describe how Stan felt to see her again. For the past four days, Wendy had been in California, although, it hadn't been a trip of pleasure. Sadly for her family, her uncle had suffered a heart attack and passed away suddenly. The young girl and both her parents had flown to Los Angeles where her uncle and the rest of her family lived to lay him peacefully to rest. It had been gloomy event to live through, and the worst part about it was that all Wendy could think about while she was gone was Stan. How much she missed him, how she wished he could have been there, what she would say to him about all of it when she returned to South Park. This final thought made her heart sink.

Watching on as he walked alongside her, Stan raised a curious eyebrow. The young teenager obviously understood what his girlfriend had been through and wasn't surprised that she still seemed rather glum, but he at least thought that the two of them coming together again after four days would make Wendy a little bit cheerier.

Suddenly thinking of something that might – at the bare minimum – make Wendy crack a genuine smile, Stan reached into his back pocket, "I got this for you. I mean, I know it's not much, but still," he spoke sweetly.

Looking down at the beautiful flower being offered to her, Wendy paused for a minute before finally accepting it with a sigh, "You didn't have to get me anything, Stan."

Again, the dark haired teenager frowned, "Well, I know... but I wanted you to know that I was thinking of you while you were gone."

Something wasn't right. Stan could just feel it. On any other normal day Wendy's face would have lit up at the sight of him, she would have squeezed the life out of him in an affectionate hug and she definitely would have grabbed a hold of his hand as the two of them walked along together. That sort of behaviour and interaction between them had just become normal to everybody who knew them – they were older now, and the times of being detached from each other in a public setting were long over. Stan was crazy about Wendy. But he could still tell that something about this particular day was far from normal.

"Wendy, what's wrong?" he asked with his hands shoved worriedly in his pockets, "You're so quiet and, like, not even happy to see me. At all. Is there something you're not telling me?"

Their walk had eventually lead them very close to Wendy's house, and as the young girl was visibly trying to gather all of her thoughts, she pushed a strand of stray hair behind her ear and stopped at the foot of her family's driveway. Turning around to face Stan, she folded her arms across her chest and gazed at him with an expression of all seriousness, causing his heart to near enough completely freeze.

"Stan, my mum's brother was a very successful businessman who never got married and didn't have any children," she began blankly, "When my family and I went to get his will read, he left my mum his beach house in Malibu."

His insides were blistering with pure fear as Stan watched Wendy fumble over her next sentence.

"My entire family lives in L.A., Stan, so..." she trailed off, shutting her eyes for a moment with another poignant sigh, "So, my parents and I are moving there. We're going to leave Colorado, move into the beach house and live there."

As soon as the final few words left the end of her tongue, Stan's world stopped spinning. He was absolutely motionless – he couldn't move or speak, he could barely even think of anything to possibly say in reply to what he had just heard. The only thing he could sense was his heart dropping to the pit of his stomach.

"L-long distance r-relationships are tr-tricky," he was somehow able to mutter, "But I'm sure we'll be able to – "

"Stan," Wendy spoke, cutting him off. Her voice cracked at the mere mention of his name as she was clearly trying to hold back the icy tears that threatened to fall from her eyes. Their vision remained locked in complete silence for what felt like an eternity, before the raven haired girl slowly shook her head with a despondent shrug of her shoulders.

There was no holding back Stan's emotions as a single tear rolled down his face at the same time he felt his heart crumble to pieces, "Wendy, don't do this to me again. Please."

"I'm not trying to hurt you, Stan," she retorted, throwing her arms out either side of her. She had almost dropped the rose that she was still holding onto as in the same instant she watched Stan's face turn from sadness to anger.

"Well, you're obviously not doing this because you care about me," he spat with venomous sarcasm, "Because this _is _you telling me that I'm never going to see you again? Right?"

The reality of the situation dawned on her with the words that Stan spoke as Wendy quickly fell to silence once more, her arms curling back up into recoiled sorrow. She tried as hard as she could to avoid the pleading expression on Stan's face, but the distress that filled his eyes was far too much for her to handle.

His throat splintered in one last desperate effort, "Wendy?"

Wendy blinked away the salty tears that pooled in the corners of her eyes. She looked down at the ground and sniffled, giving them the brief opportunity to fall unnoticed. But it was all completely useless. Snapping her head back up, she allowed her eyes to cast once more on the gorgeous face that she had loved for the longest time as she shoved the rose against Stan's chest and turned around to vanish, for the last time, into her house.

"Bye, Stan."

The door slamming shut behind her brought Stan's entire existence tumbling down. He was solidified in agony on the side of the road. He didn't care whether he was hit by a car or squashed by a truck in that moment because as far as he was concerned, his life was already over. The fifteen year old felt absolutely suffocated by the pain that had exploded in his chest – a pain that he never imagined could have been worse than what he had felt six years ago when he and Wendy had first broken up, but he was wrong. He and Wendy had told stories, shared secrets, supported each other. He had got to kiss and hug her every single day for the past six years of his life, but now suddenly in the blink of an eye he would never get to do either of those things again. He would never even get to lay his eyes on her again. She was gone.

As the snow started to fall that much heavier from over the mountain, Stan lost all feeling in his hands as the red rose fell from between his fingers and landed gently on the ground. In a matter of moments, it was covered in a white sheet of snow where it lay in Wendy's front yard, just as each piece of Stan's broken heart was iced over with the coldest misery.

He couldn't believe that this was how it all ended.

* * *

**Hello lovers of South Park!**

**I'm very excited to be writing this story! I've been watching South Park for a long time (I started watching it when I was waaaay too young) but have only just recently completely fallen back in love with it! My boyfriend had actually never seen it before - ever! So as soon as I showed it to him and we started watching it basically every day, all these cool ideas for stories started coming to me. Because I love Stan, he has always been my favourite, I am absolutely crazy about him :') And so because I'm a sucker for sappiness, and I think Stan and Wendy are adorable, this story was born!**

**I would love to hear what you all think so far, or if you have any suspicions of where it might be going. So please leave a review! I really appreciate it :)**

**Till next time guys,**

**Reneyyyyyyyyyyyy x**


	2. Oh, Happy Days

**Chapter One - Oh, Happy Days.**

The small specks of snow that danced across the backseat window sent a shiver racing up Wendy's spine. She was nervous. More nervous than she had ever been about anything else in her whole life. It had felt like an eternity since she had last seen South Park.

The seventeen year old sighed to herself, sinking into the backseat of her parents car as they continued to quietly drive down the main road of town. It had been two years since the Testaburgers had packed up and moved to Malibu, but now they were back in the little mountain town and soon enough Wendy would be returning to South Park High School. For anyone who knew her, they would probably assume that she would be over the moon to be returning to her home town and her old friends. But in reality, at that precise moment, Wendy wished that she could be absolutely anywhere else in the world but there.

Gazing back out the window, she twisted a strand of her long, black hair around her finger. Her raven locks had grown almost double the length since the last time anyone had seen her. They were just a couple of inches away from sitting her lap, while her bangs were pinned back out of her face. She no longer wore her old, pink beret, and her face was softly covered with delicately applied make-up. She definitely may have looked different upon first glance, but as her vision continued to scan the houses and trees that flicked past the moving car, it was clear to her that South Park wasn't much different at all.

For the briefest moment, a faint smile crossed Wendy's face as her family drove past Bebe's house. The sight of the vibrant, red bricks warmed her heart. A million childhood memories reappeared across her mind. She remembered being eight and playing dolls with Bebe up in her bedroom, being twelve and camping with all the girls in the backyard, and the party the girls and boys had thrown there together at the end of the summer before they started high school. This final recollection brought Wendy's train of thought to a screeching halt.

The young girl was completely frozen for a minute as she was swiftly reminded of what it was that was making her so nervous about being back home. It was the exact same thought that had been with her every day for the past two years. The same face that had sat in the back of her mind for that whole time.

Wendy's eyes suddenly narrowed as the familiarity of her surroundings began to set back in. She turned away from the car window, desperately trying to ignore the fact that they were now driving past the two-storey family home that was built with dark green bricks. The mere thought of it all absolutely terrified her.

Her final day in South Park from two years ago was one memory that was all too vivid for her. Her stomach still tangled up in knots every time she thought about, even if it was for a split second. The young girl had never felt more sick with sadness than she did that afternoon standing in her family driveway. It was one consolation, Wendy thought, that the Testaburgers had bought a new house and weren't moving back into their old one, but it didn't make her heart hurt any less than how it constantly had since that day.

All of Wendy's thoughts were beginning to feel incredibly suffocating as she loosened her seat belt strap from around her chest. She wasn't sure that anything could feel worse than sitting around her house in Malibu all day thinking about everything and _everyone_ she missed from South Park. But now she was quickly being shown that maybe being back in her home town was just too much for her to handle.

She could only imagine what it was going to feel like when she went to school tomorrow.

* * *

Monday mornings were the same thing to Bebe as they were to most seventeen year olds. A complete bore and the absolute worst day of the week.

Pulling up the hand brake of her car, Bebe turned off the ignition as a huge yawn escaped the back of her throat. She was almost tempted to slump her head down on the steering wheel to rest her eyes but was certain she would end up falling into a long, deep sleep. By God, she hated Mondays.

Sighing to herself, Bebe pushed her blonde curls out of her face as she opened her car door and stepped out. Her hair was long and pinned to one side, cascading far down her back. She moved it all out of the way as she slung her bag over her shoulder and began walking towards the front steps of South Park High School.

It was October, and Bebe along with everyone else she had grown up with since elementary school were just settling into their junior year. Already it seemed like the work load was a lot more, and the pressure of getting good grades was becoming more and more intense with each assessment and exam that went by. Coupling that with trying to hold together a decent enough social life, Bebe was definitely feeling like she already needed a break and something new to take her mind off the roller coaster that was her high school career.

That was when her eyes narrowed at the figure she saw standing at the foot of the school steps.

"Wendy!"

The sound of her name caused the dark haired teenager to spin around on the spot, grinning from ear to ear at the sight of her best friend dashing towards her. That was the first snap instant of happiness she had felt in a long time.

"Hey, Bebe!"

The force of Bebe colliding into Wendy with a warm, tight hug almost made the returning student drop all of her books. But still, she was smiling, all too relieved to back in the company of someone she had missed for so long.

Bebe had always known that Wendy was returning to South Park that week. For the entire period that she lived in Malibu, the two had talked online every day, Skyped once a week and spoken on the phone whenever they had the spare time. There wasn't one incident from California over the past two years that Bebe hadn't been told about, but for Wendy, nothing could compare to actually having her best friend back in her presence.

"Oh my God, I can't believe you're back!" the blonde girl said, finally letting go of her friend, "I missed you, girl!"

"I missed you, too," Wendy spoke with an easing sigh, "You have no clue how good it feels to see you in front of my face and not on my computer screen."

"Well, _you _have no clue how great you look! That Malibu sun has done you good – you're gonna' be, like, the most tanned girl in all of Colorado," Bebe exclaimed with a laugh, locking arms with Wendy as she began to lead her towards the doors of the school, "The girls are all _so_ excited to see you!"

For a fleeting moment, Wendy's overwhelming happiness turned to slight concern, "You didn't tell any of the girls before last night, though, right?"

"Don't worry," Bebe huffed, "I did exactly as you said – nobody knew a single thing before yesterday."

As she reached her hand out and grabbed onto the metal handle of the large door, Bebe looked over to Wendy out of the corner of her eye. It was completely obvious to her that her best friend was suddenly feeling a lot more nervous about being back at her old school. Bebe had told herself to try and not worry about Wendy so much, but she could only just imagine what she was going through and everything that must have been on her mind. She already knew that there was much more going on with Wendy other than merely trying to adapt back to her old life.

"So how has everything been?"

The two girls fell to a short silence as Wendy glanced over to her friend, exchanging a knowing look.

"It's better being back here," she spoke simply.

Within the next second, the pair walked through the double doors and entered the main auditorium of South Park High School. Wendy's heart was racing in fearful anticipation. The halls of the school were noisy with excited squeals and loud conversations, and many different sized students were bumping into the two girls where they stood in the doorway, yet the only one of her senses that Wendy was paying attention to was her eyesight as she hastily scanned the large room. She failed to initially spot any familiar faces as she continued to glance around until she felt Bebe tug on her peach coloured blouse.

"Wendy? You okay?"

Blinking in surprise, Wendy snapped out of her deep trance, staring blankly at Bebe for moment. Despite all else that was consuming her in that instant, there was still one major thought lodging itself at the forefront of her mind.

Sighing despondently to herself, Wendy took Bebe's hand, dragging her out of the walkway. The blonde girl was apprehensive of her friend's demeanour as she watched her fold her arms across her chest, awkwardly pushing a long strand of black hair behind her ear.

Again, she poignantly heaved her chest, "Do you know if any of the girls spread around that I was coming back? Like, is there... _anyone _else who knows that I'm here?"

Immediately, Bebe knew exactly what Wendy was really asking. She struggled over an answer, and was just about to give the best one she could possibly think of right when she was interrupted by the sound of the bell ringing. Students quickly began to disperse and head off to their homerooms as Wendy kept her head down, desperately trying to avoid anyone she possibly knew. Watching her do so, Bebe exhaled a deep breath and took Wendy by the arm again, walking over towards the doors of the various classrooms as she licked her lips.

"I don't know if _he_ knows, Wendy," she spoke blatantly, causing Wendy to be taken back slightly, "And you're only really gonna' be able to figure that out for yourself."

Bebe felt horrible that there wasn't anything more comforting she could tell her best friend. She wished that there was more that she could do for her, but ultimately, she knew that she could only really do what she always had – and that was simply be there to support her, unconditionally.

"So, this one should be your homeroom, right?" the blonde girl asked, gesturing to the door they now found themselves in front of. Gawking up at the number on the door, Wendy referred back to the paper in the front of her binder and nodded her head. "Eleventh grade, 'T' through 'Z'," Bebe went on. She stopped, smiled warmly at Wendy and then pulled in her in for a quick, comforting hug, "Good luck. I'll see you at break."

Wendy returned the grin as confidently as she could, "Thanks, Bebe."

Then, almost as quickly as her blissful relief had appeared that morning, Wendy's smile dropped from her face. For a place that was so familiar to her, filled with faces that she was certain she'd eventually begin to recognise, Wendy had never quite felt this alone before. Well, not for a while now, anyway.

The dark haired girl stood in front of the classroom door, nervously gazing up at it as she dared to place her hand on the handle. The homeroom bell had rung a couple of minutes ago now, and she knew she really needed to get a move on. But something else Wendy also knew was that walking through that door and taking her seat meant that she would be accepting the fact that her life in South Park was officially restarting. And at that particular point in time, she couldn't be one hundred percent certain what that would mean for her. Or for the person whose image kept emerging in her mind.

Shaking her head to try and rid it of all negative thought, Wendy took a final deep breath and pushed the classroom door open. She definitely couldn't stop the inevitable from happening, but she could at least try and put it off for as long as possible and take it all one very slow step at a time.

As this thought remained with her while she entered her new homeroom, Wendy's eyes widened in delight, "Heidi!"

Heidi Turner's brown ponytail swung around as she heard her name. Soon enough, she was collecting her old friend in a long awaited hug as the two of them giggled away excitedly at the front of the classroom. An elated smirk had managed to creep its way back across Wendy's face while her warm grip around Heidi tightened for a brief moment as they happily spun around on the spot.

All of the animated commotion they were causing had certainly caught the attention of the rest of the students who sat at their desks. Wendy scanned the faces of the other eleventh graders she peered at from over Heidi's shoulder. Most of those who were gazing over in her direction were just nameless expressions that she didn't recognise, but yet this only added to her surprise when she finally locked eyes with someone who wasn't one of her girl friends.

As Heidi finally let go of her old friend, Wendy took a step back. The blank, confused stare she was receiving from Craig Tucker eventually became somewhat intimidating enough for her to turn away and scurry off to a desk near the front of the room next to Heidi.

Craig blinked. What the hell had he just seen? Was that really who he thought it was? He supposed that the worried glare he had been on the receiving end of was really the confirming factor. Wendy Testaburger was back in South Park.

The teenage boy paused for a minute, thinking. He reached up under his blue hat and scratched his head, finally deciding to dig his hand down into the depths of his pocket and retrieve his mobile phone. Unlocking the phone and entering his message bank, Craig stopped for another couple of seconds. While his initial gut instincts had instantly told him the most obvious person that he should be text messaging in this situation, he soon shook his head. Instead, he selected a different one of his contacts, ran his thumbs over the keypad, and without a second thought, sent a text zooming across the school.

It was three more classrooms further up the hall when the message finally reached its destination. The vibrations it set off on the phone where it had landed shot up its owner's leg, impulsively causing him to grab it out of his pocket.

_Craig? _he asked himself, _What does he want?_

A deeply set frown was already apparent in his brow as he touched his thumb against the screen, opening the message. When he finally read the words that were in front of him, Kyle froze.

'_You need to talk to Stan.'_

A concerned thought immediately crossed Kyle Broflovski's mind.

'_What? Why?' _he messaged back.

It was less than a minute before another reply shot back to Kyle's phone. His brow furrowed even more when he saw that the message had a photo attached to it. What was this going to be all about? Kyle wondered if Craig was playing some kind of stupid joke, but when he thought about it, a harmless joke may have been better than anything that was actually bad – especially if it included Stan.

Shaking off the notion, Kyle tentatively opened the attachment. And it was immediately worse than anything he could have imagined.

"Oh, fuck off."

The shocked and agitated mumbles that erupted from the red-headed teenager caused all those around him to suddenly look up, including the larger, hefty figure that was sitting right beside him. Examining the look of disbelief that was clearly spread across Kyle's face, Eric Cartman leant over and looked down at the Jewish boy's phone, "What?" he grunted.

Kyle was stewing in an angered silence, refusing to answer his friend and leaving him to discover the truth for himself. For a split second, Cartman's eyes widened in quiet surprise, but soon enough the photo on Kyle's phone of Wendy sitting at the front of Craig's homeroom with Heidi sent him into an array of chuckles and snorts.

"Ha ha!" he exclaimed, ignoring the blatant concern in Kyle's expression, "Ha, aah, well it'll be interesting to see how _this_ one turns out..."

* * *

The fifteen minutes of homeroom had felt like the longest of Kyle's entire life as he came bursting out the door, frantically looking around the hallways. His mind was being pulled in two or three different directions, unsure of who exactly he should be hunting down to confront first.

The photo he had seen as clear as day of Wendy sitting back in a desk at South Park High School still burnt in the back of his mind. It made his stomach turn. While it may have been the one circumstance that he never imagined would ever come to be, it had always been a worry of his ever since the very day that Wendy left. Ever since he had seen what it had done to his best friend.

All of a sudden he spied Craig approaching him out of the corner of his eye. As Cartman reappeared by his side, Kyle quickly looked around to make sure there was no-one else in ear shot, "Are you sure about this?" he hissed in a panic.

Craig raised an eyebrow, "Was the photographic evidence not enough?"

Kyle could feel his head beginning to pound underneath his trusty old green hat, "Well, what the hell is she doing back here?" he spat.

"I dunno', dude, it's not like I spoke to her or anything," Craig argued, "But she did see me. So you might want to do something about it before she does."

An exasperated sigh escaped the back of Kyle's throat as he heatedly began to pace back and forth in front of his two friends. Cartman looked on, still mildly amused by the whole situation as he began to giggle to himself again, "Well, I guess first one to find Stan and tell him wins!"

"No!" Kyle shot back at him, "No, nobody tells Stan anything," he warned with another sigh. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his jacket, trying to think of the best possible thing to do. Just as he turned around to open his mouth and speak to Craig, Kyle sensed himself freeze again.

Peering over his friend's shoulder, his eyes narrowed as he finally spotted the dark haired ghost for himself. Seeing Wendy standing a mere few feet in front of him, happily chatting away with Heidi, Bebe and a couple of the other girls as if everything was completely normal seemed majorly and doubtlessly unfair to him. But at the same time, it also made him realise something.

As he shook his head in disgust at Wendy, Kyle then spun back around on the spot, briskly walking past Cartman and Craig and calling back to them as he did, "Leave Stan to me. I'm gonna' make sure he hears this from me before anyone else."

Scrunching up his mouth, Kyle lowered his voice to a mutter, "Or before he finds out for himself..."

* * *

Gym class had always been a struggle for Cartman. Even though he was seventeen now and most people assumed that somewhere down the line of his teenage years he would have actually tried to do something about his poor health and his even poorer weight, he was really just as fat as he had always been.

Stumbling back over to the bleaches after running – or attempting to run – ten laps of the football field, Cartman collapsed next to Craig, who was also now joined by Clyde Donovan. The two long-time good friends looked over at Cartman as he sat down beside them, panting like a tired dog. Just as he was on the verge of coughing up one of his lungs, his over dramatic fit of exhaustion was interrupted by Kyle running over towards the group in his own P.E. uniform. His bushy mess of red hair was tied back in a ponytail and he reached his hands back to tighten it as he let out an aggravated huff.

"So, how'd he take it?" Clyde asked, swapping a glance with Craig.

Ignoring his friends, Kyle silently slumped down on the bleaches next to them, causing the two of them to frown.

"What?" Craig questioned him, "Have you not seen him yet?"

"I saw him this morning," Kyle spoke through gritted teeth, exerting a sigh, "but I didn't know how to tell him."

"Oh, wow, well great job, Kyle," Cartman spluttered, still suffering from his dose of exercise.

"As if you give a shit, fat ass!"

"Hey, I offered to break it to him gently for you, but you wanted to bitch your way around it like you always do."

"Break it to him gently?" Kyle repeated in sarcasm, "That's bullshit Cartman, and you know it."

"Calm down, dude," Clyde urged him, "Cartman's kinda' right. You need to tell him sooner or later."

"Yeah," Craig added, "Plus, if he finds out that you knew and didn't tell him, he could get majorly pissed at you."

Falling to a stubborn hush, Kyle rolled his eyes. He didn't think that it was particularly anyone else's business how he chose to handle the situation at hand – Stan was his best friend, and besides, Kyle was the one who had independently taken the responsibility on for himself. But deep down, he knew his other friends were right. He needed to have Stan's back, and tip-toeing around him to avoid hurting his feelings was ultimately doing him much more harm than good.

Groaning in annoyance, Kyle reluctantly lifted himself off the bleaches and started to walk back towards the school building, "He just finished football practice, right?"

"Yeah," Clyde confirmed, "He'll probably be out of the showers any minute now."

Without saying another word, Kyle continued to trudge along, across the oval, up the school steps and through the large double doors, all the while wondering how exactly his best friend was going to react after hearing what he had to say, "God damn it..."

There were a handful of other students standing around in the school gym, some were playing basketball, others were simply chatting away with one another. Kyle weaved his way between them as he walked over to where his gym bag was sitting against the side wall. He retrieved his green hat, stuffed all his hair back into it and then gazed over his shoulder toward the entrance to the male locker room. With no-one in sight, Kyle picked up his bag, walked over to the stands in front of the indoor basketball court and then nervously sat down, awaiting his friend's appearance.

The young teenager's mind began to wander, asking itself dozens of questions. He was so lost in his own uneasy thoughts that he barely even noticed when two familiar faces crossed his path and appeared in his narrowed vision. Kyle looked blankly at Bebe, blinking a couple of times before focusing his sight on the undesirable figure that stood beside the blonde girl. He shook his head at Bebe's friend, appalled, waiting for Wendy to open her mouth and speak.

The dark-haired girl frowned with a shrug of her shoulders, "Hi, Kyle."

Kyle's teeth grinded together in anger, "'Hi, Kyle'? Really? Is that all you have to say for yourself?"

Fiddling with the hem of her P.E. shirt, Wendy exchanged a quick, confused glance with Bebe. Even when she had lived in Malibu, Wendy had tried her hardest to keep in touch with everyone from South Park – not just the girls. It was certainly no surprise to her when Stan had dropped off from all of her contact lists, but it was a couple of weeks later when Kyle had suddenly dropped off her radar, too. He had unfriended, unfollowed and straight out deleted her from every social media connection in existence, so she wasn't exactly shocked to be receiving such a sour reception from him now. But she never really imagined he would seem _this _infuriated with her.

Quickly getting sick of her silent approach, Kyle licked his lips, "So, are you really gonna' make me ask what you're doing back here?"

Scrunching up her face, obviously offended, Wendy shot Kyle daggers, "My parents missed South Park and wanted to come back, is that a crime or something now?"

"Don't be a smart ass."

"Kyle!" Bebe exclaimed, jumping to the aid of her friend.

Turning his attention to the blonde teenager, Kyle shook his head in complete bewilderment, "It didn't piss you off even a little bit when your so-called best friend just turned up back at South Park unannounced?"

Wendy rolled her eyes, "Of course Bebe knew I was coming – "

" – Ah, Wendy," Bebe suddenly said, cutting her off. Within an instant, the other two eleventh graders were staring at Bebe, puzzled at why she had so abruptly cut in before Wendy even had the chance to finish her sentence.

Eventually, Kyle's eyes widened at her, "You knew? You knew and you said nothing about it?"

Wendy's jaw dropped as she perplexingly looked over to her friend, "Why is it any concern of his?"

The raven haired girl was surprised to hear Bebe sigh and offer what she said next, "Because we've been, like, hanging out, or whatever you want to call it," she admitted nonchalantly before directing herself back at Kyle, "But he doesn't need to be so dramatic about it!"

Feeling himself snap at what was just about the final straw, Kyle scoffed loudly in disgust. He had been hanging out with, or seeing Bebe, or whatever anyone else wanted to claim it to be. But upon discovering that apparently that wasn't even enough to be informed of such drastic and important information like Wendy coming back to town, Kyle angrily jumped up from the indoor bleaches and pushed past the two girls, "You know what – whatever!" he yelled, "I don't have to deal with this shit, so unless either of you have anything useful to say, just forget we ever had this conversation."

Watching him walk off towards the exit of the gym so rudely and arrogantly, Wendy shook her head as she sensed a dangerous thought in the back of her mind begin to fume, "How has Stan been going?"

The precise second that the main subject of the sentence had left her mouth, Kyle came to a screeching halt in his tracks. He was completely solidified in his place, shocked by what he had heard and not entirely certain of how best to react. Slowly, he turned around on the spot, glaring furiously at Wendy as step by step he walked back towards the two girls. He could hardly believe the mere audacity of his friend's ex-girlfriend as he swallowed a harsh lump in his throat.

"Stan's great," he spoke simply and decisively, "And I want him to stay that way. So stay the fuck away from him, Wendy."

All three of them impulsively fell to silence as the callous words from Kyle sliced though the tension like a freshly sharpened blade. Bebe was staring at him in disappointment while Wendy was simply standing firm with her arms crossed against her chest. She remained quiet for a moment with Kyle's spectacular performance still dwelling on her mind as she tried to think of some kind of defence to offer. Just as she was about to open her mouth and speak, she was unexpectedly interrupted yet again before her words had even touched her tongue. But the guilty party was definitely not the person that Wendy was ever expecting.

"Dude, Kyle, like six different people today have said you need to talk to me, what's going..."

As his own sentence trailed off in astonishment, seventeen year old Stan Marsh was completely still.

Stan took the briefest of moments to gaze over at his best friend, vacantly examining the distress that was apparent on Kyle's face. He then quickly glazed over Bebe before he fell into deep hesitation and unwillingly locked eyes with the girl standing beside her. He could barely believe it. It was her. It was Wendy.

The stunned gap that had parted its way between Wendy's lips was seemingly not enough to remind her to breathe as she sensed herself almost choking on her own amazement. Her heart was racing quicker than it ever had over the past two years of her life. Two years without seeing, interacting or speaking to Stan had all come down to this precise moment – the moment that she had been nervous for since she had crossed the border back into Colorado the night before. And holy crap, did he look different.

Stan's hair had grown a little bit longer, and it was clinging wet to his forehead after having a post-football shower. His red poofball hat was still proudly on his head, but it now sat much farther back, allowing his longer black locks to hang out from the front. He was wearing jeans and a Varsity style South Park High Bulls football jacket with his playing number on the back of it. And most notably of all... had he gotten taller?

Wendy swallowed nervously, trying to snap herself out of her hypnotised trance. Sighing to herself and blinking a few times, she soon realised that she and Stan were still staring at each other. Their vision was fastened together so tightly that she could almost swear she could see her reflection in his sparkling, blue orbs. He was even more gorgeous than she remembered.

Cracking the smallest smirk imaginable, Wendy allowed her arms to fall from her chest and clutch onto her hips as she tilted her head sweetly to the side, "Hey, Stan."

Stan was still deathly silent. He stared Wendy up and down. She had definitely grown into a beautiful young woman. Her eyes were just as dazzling as ever, and her stunningly black ponytail reached all the way to the small of her back. But even so, he remained blank.

The expressions of Kyle, Bebe and especially Wendy all fell in immediate confusion as Stan parted his lips to speak two simple words before turning around and carelessly walking away,

"Hi, Wendy."

* * *

**Thank you to everyone who read, favourited, followed and reviews the prologue of this story! I'm having so much fun writing it, and would love to hear what you all thought of this first chapter! **

**How do you all think Stan is going to manage now that Wendy's back? Is he really as calm and collected as he seemed to be, or do you think he's trying to hide his true feelings? **

**Please leave a review and let me know what you think! I would really appreciate it :)**

**Till next time guys,**

**Reneyyyyyyyyyyy x**


	3. Highs and Lows

**Chapter Two - Highs and Lows.**

Pulling open the door to his locker, Stan clutched onto it tightly, closing his eyes for a moment and taking a deep breath. His brain was still trying to adjust to exactly what he had just seen. He wasn't sure what was more unbelievable – that after all these long months Wendy had finally appeared back in front of him, or the fact that he seemed to be taking it fairly well so far. Maybe it just hadn't sunk in properly yet, but even so, Stan shook his head. He was desperate to rid it of all the swirling and confusing thoughts that were swarming his mind in that instant, but the task was quickly proving much easier said than done.

The lasting image of a fifteen year old Wendy Testaburger that Stan had been holding onto for so long had immediately been eliminated when his eyes had fallen on her in the centre of the school gym. All he could envision now was the gorgeous young woman that had smiled so sweetly at him and said hello. Everything about her was so enthralling, the way she looked, the way she sounded, the way her gym clothes had perfectly hugged her body, the way she wore her hair –

_Dude, fucking stop!_

Sighing to himself, Stan slammed his locker door shut. The logical, yet insulting voice in his head was trying its best to take full control of him, but there was nothing stopping it from falling that little bit short. It's like he was suddenly hung up on Wendy all over again.

As he slung his bag over his shoulder and began to slowly walk down the corridor, the dark haired teenager was still lost deep within his own thoughts until his eyes narrowed at a familiar figure quickly shuffling towards him. For a split second, Stan froze. His emotions were hastily trying to decide how best to react, but eventually he could only grin. He knew that none of what had happened that morning was Kyle's fault.

A wave of relief rushed over Kyle as he was surprised to see his best friend looking at him with an unscathed expression. But even so, he knew far better than to always take everything at face value. Especially when it came to Stan and Wendy.

Within just a couple more steps, the two boys were standing toe to toe, silently gazing at each other where they stood right in the middle of the busy corridor. Stan was slightly blank and unreadable, but the immense concern in Kyle's eyes was all too obvious. The red head sighed.

"You okay, dude?"

Pausing in thought, Stan shrugged his shoulders with a cynical smile, "I've been worse."

Rolling his eyes at the sarcasm from his friend, Kyle quickly spun around and followed Stan down the hall as he brushed past him, "Sorry I didn't tell you myself, man."

Stan was quiet for another moment as he adjusted his red poof ball hat, "It would've been nice," he admitted, "But I get it. That's kinda' a big bit of news to have to break."

"I still should've said something."

Heaving a long sigh, Stan soon shook his head, shooting Kyle an understanding glance, "Don't beat yourself about it or anything, dude. It's cool, okay?"

The supposed certainty from his friend left Kyle completely backed into a corner. He couldn't even begin to imagine what that day had felt like so far for Stan, but he knew there still had to be much more emotion behind it than what the other seventeen year old was letting on.

Despite the fact that he wanted to keep arguing his point to try and sneak his way further into Stan's head, Kyle instead forced himself to a stumped silence. He was desperately torn between what he had been expecting to hear and what it was that Stan was actually saying. He had seen what Wendy leaving had done to his best friend two years ago, but now by some sort of a miracle, Stan seemed to be more or less totally intact. And while it definitely may have been a pleasant reprieve for Kyle to see, he was certain that he didn't one hundred percent trust his friend's reaction – not for a second.

Awkwardly scratching the back of his neck, Kyle cleared his throat, "So, are you gonna', like, talk to – "

"No, Kyle," Stan instantly cut in with a sharp groan, "Look, I still kinda' need some time to actually let this sink in, okay? But, no, I'm not going to talk to her, or look at her, or anything else." His words were as stern and firm as his thoughts that accompanied them, "I've learned my lesson, dude."

Kyle frowned. He still couldn't quite tell if Stan was being deadly serious or plain stubborn, but nevertheless, he quickly decided to just bite his tongue. If Stan was going to keep butting in and shutting down all of his best friend's attempts at discussion, then there wasn't any point in keeping at him. Kyle would simply shut his mouth, drop the whole thing and forget about it. For now.

"Well good," he spoke plainly.

"Yeah," Stan agreed, slowly trailing off. The thought of it all still pulsated in his brain, but he soon forced himself to try and change the subject, "So, this whole thing has put a bit of a dent in you and Bebe, too, hey?"

"What?" Kyle sniped with immediate venom, "There is _no _me and Bebe, dude!"

A sly smirk turned up in the corner of Stan's mouth. As the school bell sounded in the background signalling the students to move onto their last class for the day, Stan slapped his pal on the back, shooting Kyle a mocking wink, "Yeah, yeah, man. I'm sure."

Before the fiery haired teenager had the chance to respond, Stan zoomed down the hallway, laughing to himself as he ducked in behind the classroom door, leaving Kyle to play catch up. He shook his head with another roll of his eyes. It was great to see Stan laughing and making jokes, but it would have been a plus if they weren't necessarily at his expense – better still if they didn't mention Bebe. Any thought of the blonde girl who had become a somewhat article of Kyle's affection only made him angry in that particular moment. And as he eventually reached the eleventh grade math classroom and took his seat next to Stan, Kyle knew that his best friend wouldn't be the only one avoiding a particular girl from that point onwards.

* * *

Wendy couldn't focus. She glanced down at her notebook to find that it was pretty much empty. Her brain hadn't been working away at all. She had remained very quiet for the whole lesson, barely even attempting to raise her hand and answer any of her math teacher's questions. But what was worse than all of that was the exact reason why she had been failing to pay attention. She looked out of the corner of her eye, subtly peeking over at Stan for about the fiftieth time that lesson as she softly sighed to herself.

Flicking her hair out of her face, she quickly shot her vision back down to her desk as Stan turned around to talk to Cartman who was sitting behind him. The last thing she needed was any awkward eye contact between them, especially after what had happened during their confrontation earlier that morning. Or rather, what _hadn't _happened.

She didn't know what she had been expecting, really. The raven haired girl didn't exactly have any particular plans upon returning to South Park High School, but she had thought that Stan would have at least said more than just 'hi' to her. Well, that's what she had hoped, anyway.

Quickly shaking her head at her own ridiculous thoughts, Wendy groaned under her breath. She knew there was no point in dwelling on all of this for much longer. Stan quite obviously was happy to not have anything to do with her, and the most important thing was that she settled back into her old life in South Park to finish off her final two years of high school with the best grades that she could manage. And that meant zero distractions, no matter how hard that was going to be for her.

"Alright, class," the eleventh grade teacher, Mr. Graham, spoke up, "Just before we finish for the day, I want to go over the final question from your exam the other day that the majority of you seemed to have a lot of trouble with."

Mr. Graham was quite a young teacher. He was a tall, brunette man in his late twenties and was a teacher that mostly all of his students enjoyed and could get along with. He was laid back and very approachable, and also had a good sense of humour. He was always prepared to step back and have a bit of a laugh with his students, particularly his very loud and very outspoken eleventh grade class.

"So, I know it was a bit difficult," he began as he wrote the question up on the blackboard, "But I think if we go over it now then you should all be prepared the next time you – "

Right as Mr. Graham turned back around to face his students, he instantly trailed off at the sight that graced him from the desk of Eric Cartman. Despite the fact that the bell to end the school day was only a mere few minutes away, it seemed that Cartman's growling stomach had gotten the best of him as he was slumped back in his chair with a huge bag of Cheesy Poofs laying open on his desk.

"Uh, Eric?" Mr. Graham asked, confused, "Do you think you could possibly refrain from snacking during the small amount of time that is left in my class?"

"Sorry, Sir," Cartman snorted through a mouthful of processed, cheesy chunks, "My body is on strict food regime, and you interrupting it will leave me no choice but to take appropriate action against you."

The young teacher was not fooled by Cartman's over exaggeration and over use of large words, "Well, I don't suppose you could pull yourself away for one moment to perhaps assist the rest of the class with this question on quadratic equations?"

From the other side of the classroom, Wendy rolled her eyes. A lot of things about South Park High and some of its students may have changed, but one thing that hadn't was Cartman's attitude. He was still the same inappropriately crude jerk that he had always been. She waited for another sarcastic retort from him as she examined the question on the board for herself, but almost as quickly as she had begun, the dark haired girl felt her breath hitch nervously at the sound of another voice echoing from across the room.

"I wouldn't count on it, Mr. Graham," Stan said, leaning back lazily in his chair as he looked to Kyle to join in with him, "The only quad-anything that Cartman has any time for is a double-double-cheeseburger."

Kyle chuckled, "Yeah, with extra bacon."

"And extra sauce."

"And an extra large shake."

"'Ay!" Cartman yelled at them.

"Okay, guys, okay!" Mr. Graham cut in, trying to subside Stan and Kyle's laughter.

Watching on amongst the giggles and sniggers of everyone else in the classroom, Wendy remained silent. She glimpsed over at Stan where he continued to sit, looking pretty happy and smug with himself. She was slightly confused – Stan may have looked older and more mature but it seemed to her that he was still able to act like the quick witted, silly kid that he had always been. But that wasn't exactly the confusing part. Stan was acting exactly the same as Wendy remembered him, as if nothing had changed. Even on today of all days. Was he even thinking about her at all?

Putting all attention back on himself, Mr. Graham soon opened his mouth to speak again, "Seeing as you've got so much to say, Stan, I'm sure you'll be fine with coming up here and showing the rest of us how this question is done," he challenged, holding a piece of chalk out towards Stan, "After all, you were the only one in the whole class who got it right."

Suddenly reigniting her interest, Wendy's eyes widened at her teacher's words. She was still for a short moment before she slumped forward with one elbow leaning on the desk, watching on carefully and secretly as she waited to see what Stan would do.

Ignoring the taunts he heard erupting from Cartman behind him, Stan was still smiling. Eventually he got out of his desk and took the chalk from Mr. Graham.

"Yeah, come on Stan, show the rest of these nerds how it's done!"

Swapping a glance with his teacher as he walked by him, they both shook their heads at Cartman. Stan knew his teacher was proud of him, and hell, he was pretty damn proud of himself, too. He had really knuckled down with his school work over the past year or so, and as he easily scribbled away at the blackboard solving the equation, he could see for himself just how much it was paying off.

Right as he made the final chalk marking on the board, Wendy had only just managed to solve the problem for herself. She frowned, feeling sort of surprised. She knew that Stan had always gotten good grades, but she never realised that he was actually this smart.

"Good job, Stan," Mr. Graham congratulated the teenager as he made his way back to his desk.

Sighing as softly as humanly possible to herself, Wendy folded her arms across her table, collapsing her head down onto them.

_He's still as smart, sporty and adorable as ever._

Another groan escaped her with a silent whisper, "This is so unfair..."

Before anyone else in the class had time to say anything else, or Wendy had the chance to let another thought cross her mind, the school bell suddenly rang throughout all the classrooms. Within a rapid second or two, each of the students were scraping their chairs back and jumping up on their feet, eager to escape for the afternoon.

"Alright, everyone," Mr. Graham shouted over his excitably noisy students, "I'll see you all tomorrow, and don't forget to keep preparing for Homecoming this Friday night!"

Almost as quickly as the proud smirk had appeared on Stan's face, it abruptly dropped as he rolled his eyes with a frown, "Aw man," he spoke to Kyle, "God damn Homecoming."

"Yeah," Kyle agreed with a stubborn scoff, "Tell me about it."

Similar thoughts had almost instantly erupted in Wendy's mind, as well. She had become so preoccupied with all the other events of her first day back that she hadn't taken any time to think about the things that were actually school-related.

Sighing again and pushing her long, black locks out of her face, Wendy quickly shot up from her desk, extremely frazzled as she attempted to snatch up all of her textbooks and fly out of the classroom door. Moving far too fast for her own good, Wendy grunted and swore under her breath as she inevitably bumped into one of her fellow students, spilling her books at her feet.

"Oh, sorry," she spoke. Her kind eyes looked up from the floor and fell upon the person in front of her, immediately causing her lips to part in surprise. She wasn't sure why she was so shocked to see that – of course – it was Stan that she had bumped into. She didn't really think she was going to escape the day without one more awkward encounter with him, did she?

She had all but lost the will to speak when Wendy finally managed to clear her throat and bring her voice to a stutter, "U-uh, y-yeah, sorry, Stan."

Keeping his eyes locked with Wendy's, Stan was suddenly silent again, just like he had been that morning in the gym. He scanned her face, urgently trying to ignore the sweetness of her smile and the heavy pitter-patter of his heart, before he finally forced himself to tear his vision away from hers. Brushing past her and stepping over her books, his appearance remained expressionless as he marched out the door. Wendy definitely wasn't the only one who felt that this entire situation was completely unfair.

After all, _he _was the one being made to sit back and push himself to ignore her all day.

It had only been six hours, and Stan could already feel that the task was nearing on absolutely _impossible._

* * *

With the thoughts of Homecoming drumming in the back of his mind, Kyle huffed an agitated sigh. He slammed his locker door shut and spun around on his heels, quickly heading towards the front doors of the school. It had been a long day.

"Kyle?"

The sound of his name made the teenager freeze on the spot. The moment that the voice had echoed down the corridor, Kyle knew exactly who it was that was speaking to him. Slowly and reluctantly, he turned around, grimacing absolute daggers at Bebe.

"What?"

The blonde girl smiled, walking over to the side of the hallway, out of the way from everyone else as she beckoned Kyle to join her, "So, are you going to pick me up on Friday night, or do you want me to just meet you here?"

Staring at her for a few seconds that seemed to drag on forever, Kyle's blank expression soon dropped as he frowned in utter disbelief, "Are you serious?" he spat, "What the hell makes you think I even want to hang out with you again, let alone actually go to Homecoming with you?"

For a swift instant, Bebe's heart ached in the absolute slightest before an obvious thought crossed her mind. Her hurt expression quickly turned into a sarcastic smirk as she shook her head at Kyle, scoffing, "You're _still _acting all angry and dramatic over this?"

"Uh, obviously!" Kyle yelled, patronising her, "You didn't tell me anything. You knew that Wendy was coming back here and you didn't say a single word!"

"I didn't tell _anyone!" _Bebe argued, "Wendy asked me not to. I kept that secret for over a week, Kyle – none of the girls even knew that she was coming back until last night."

"But you knew what that could've done to Stan!"

Heaving out a long, defeated sigh, Bebe folded her arms across her chest. Anyone in their grade who thought that Stan and Wendy had the only complicated relationship in South Park didn't know the first thing about Kyle and Bebe. Half the time, Bebe wasn't even sure for herself what was going on.

Bebe had quickly gotten over the deep attraction that she had once felt for Kyle in elementary school, but it seemed that the older they got and the more extra elements that got thrown into their situation, the more that they became drawn to one another. One of those extra elements in particular that had certainly helped them along their way was the eventual development of teenage parties.

When Bebe had turned seventeen a few months before at the end of tenth grade, she had a nice dinner and get together with her family, but she also had a much larger and crazier house party with all of her friends. There had been lots of people that her parents hadn't necessarily been able to keep their eye on. They hadn't noticed when their daughter and Kyle had managed to get their hands on some alcohol, and they definitely hadn't noticed when the two of them had ultimately found their way into Bebe's bedroom.

It had been as awkward as all hell between Kyle and Bebe after they had sex that night. Obviously, they had been safe, so there was no concern for any permanent consequences from their actions. But that didn't detract from how it had affected both of them personally. They had avoided each other at school, stopped texting one another, and even stopped hanging out with each other's friends. All that either of them could think about was whether or not it had all been one hugely regrettable mistake. While they both had close friends in their ear telling them that it wasn't a big deal and to just let it go, the two of them couldn't help but escape the feeling that there was so much left unsaid that they needed to hash out. That was when their opportunity rose.

A few weeks after Bebe's birthday, it was summer vacation. The parents of one of the other kids in their class had gone away for a week or two, and so that weekend as many people as possible had gathered for another massive party. The music was pumping, the dancing had been wild, and the drinks had been flowing, but before the end of the night, Kyle and Bebe had eventually found their way towards each other again. At first they had both been quiet, just as awkward as they had been for all those previous weeks. But nevertheless, they found some time to be alone. They had both been much more responsible that night than they had been at Bebe's party. They drank enough to feel comfortable with talking to one another, but nowhere near enough to let their intimacy get out of hand again. And so, they talked.

Bebe was the first to say that she had missed hanging out with Kyle. She may still have been uncertain about how she truly felt about him, but she was at least able to admit that. Kyle agreed, telling her that he didn't want to not be friends with her or not speak to her anymore. They both consented that perhaps their time together had begun too hastily to jump into a real, fully committed relationship. But neither of them wanted anyone else. They only wanted to get to know each other more.

The smiles on their faces and the familiar, bubbly feelings that encapsulated them had been just as pleasant as they both remembered while they kissed again that night. But that was as far as they went – and just about as far as they had gone since then. They hadn't had sex again, anyway. They both knew that they would sense when the time was right to try and be together for real, but until then there was certainly no harm in having someone to find comfort and affection in every now and again. And Bebe didn't want to lose that, not now, and definitely not because of emotions that still simmered between Stan and Wendy.

With her arms still tightly folded in front of her, Bebe narrowed her eyes at Kyle, "Look, I get it, okay?" she said, "You want to look out for him. Stan's your best friend, right?"

Kyle chuckled, "Uh, yeah?"

"Well, Wendy's mine," Bebe countered, dropping her arms by her sides as she took a heated step towards Kyle, "I wasn't trying to hurt you or Stan – I was only looking out for Wendy. And you can't honestly say that if it had been the other way around that you wouldn't have done the exact same thing."

With his cynical demeanour suddenly crumbling around him, Kyle chewed irritably on his bottom lip. He searched every corner of his mind trying to find a decent argument to counter hers with, but ultimately, he stubbornly fell to silence. He knew that Bebe was right.

Another breath danced from between her lips as Bebe twisted a long curl of her blonde hair around her finger and pushed it behind her ear, "Look, for what it's worth, I am sorry, Kyle. But I wouldn't change what I did."

They continued to stare at each other, both waiting for completely different things that would hopefully lead to the same result. Bebe wanted Kyle to smile and tell her it was all okay, and Kyle wanted some kind of reassurance that keeping what he had going with Bebe was going to make both of them happy. But as she soon looked onto him sadly before turning around and walking away towards the building's exit, the answer became immediate in Kyle's mind.

Bebe really was gorgeous and fun to be around, plus on top of all that, she was the first girl that Kyle had ever been with. And no amount of absurd anger or stupid arguments was ever going to change any of that.

Feeling like he wanted to kick himself, Kyle groaned at how ridiculous he had been, "I'll pick you up," he called out to her. His lips parted at the smile that had found its way back onto Bebe's face as she turned around and gazed at him happily.

"Will 6:30 be alright?" he asked.

Taking the request as an accepted apology, Bebe simply strolled slowly over to Kyle, letting her answer speak for itself as she placed a flirtatious hand on his waist and delicately brought her lips to his, exchanging a quick, soft peck.

Kyle's eyes instantly widened in surprise. Every time that he and Bebe had been together or kissed or anything else they had always been in private. They had never shown any public displays of affection, especially not in the school halls. His cheeks flushed a pale red as he looked around to see who had been watching them once Bebe finally parted from him.

A goofy grin crossed the teenage boy's face, "Wh-what was that for?"

Giggling quietly to herself, Bebe bit her lip with a playful shrug of her shoulders, "Because you're sweet," she sang, finally backing away from him with a small wave, "I'll see ya' tomorrow."

"S-see ya'," he just managed to mumble out.

Raising his hand to his mouth, he skimmed his fingertips along his lips where Bebe's had been a mere few seconds ago. It was moments like these where he could sort of understand where Stan was coming from with his stomach-turning, lovesick, romantic tendencies. But no matter how fast Bebe made his heart race, there was no way that Kyle was going to let himself fall that hard for her – not yet, anyway. With Wendy now obviously here to stay, there was still much more with Stan that Kyle needed to get to the bottom of before he could stop and even consider thinking about himself.

* * *

Looking up at his regular afternoon school bus, Stan couldn't seem to get his feet to manoeuvre towards it and climb aboard. From where he stood on the footpath outside of South Park High, he was able to stare through the back window of the bus and gaze on gloomily at Wendy.

The beautiful young girl was sitting towards the back of the bus, laughing and chatting away with Bebe and a couple of the other girls. By this stage, even some of her old guy friends had given in and were now speaking to her again.

The thought of sitting in the same confined space as her and being forced to listen to her infectious laugh made him roll his eyes in annoyance. This was his school, Stan thought to himself, _he _wasn't the one who had left for two whole years. Shouldn't he be able to freely go wherever he pleased without having to worry about Wendy being there?

Just as a dismal sigh escaped from between his lips, Stan jumped slightly at the presence of somebody else appearing beside him.

Following his friend's line of vision, Kyle shared the same sentiment as Stan, finally having caught up to him after his talk with Bebe. Patting his best friend on the back, Kyle cleared his throat, "'Wanna walk home?"

The answer couldn't come quick enough to Stan, "Yeah, sure."

It was easy for the two of them to turn around and begin on their journey home – the hard part for Stan was trying to erase the thoughts of Wendy that still sprouted across his mind.

All of the combined events and uncomfortable run-ins from the entire day were finally beginning to truly settle in Stan's brain. It had been two incredibly long years for him when Wendy was gone, but the young teenager had managed to scratch and claw himself back to a place where he regained complete, one hundred percent happiness. It hadn't been a pleasant experience, but had got there in the end. But now, he wasn't totally sure how he was supposed to feel.

Staring down at his feet that shuffled along beneath him, Kyle tried to think of something to say. He would have been happy with saying anything at this point – absolutely anything that would dull his sense of concern was fiercely beginning to bubble up inside him again.

"So... you okay?"

Rolling his eyes, Stan shot an annoyed expression at Kyle, "I feel like we've already had this conversation, dude."

His best friend's continuous sarcasm was really starting to get under Kyle's skin, "Oh, c'mon, Stan."

"What?" Stan sniped back, "Okay, I'm not great if that's what you really wanna' hear me say," he admitted through gritted teeth, "But your constant breathing down my neck hasn't made this day any shorter, ya' know."

Slightly taken back but Stan's sudden, harsh words, Kyle frowned angrily. He stopped in his tracks, grabbing onto his best friend's shoulder and racking him around on the spot to face him, "Hey, look, I'm sorry if I've come down heavy today, but it's been stressful for me too!"

Slowly shaking his head, Stan shrugged Kyle's hand off his shoulder. He had opted to walk home with his friend as a means of avoiding Wendy, and having her as the main topic of conversation certainly wasn't achieving what he had been hoping for, "Stressful for _you? _Stressful how, exactly?"

Kyle scoffed. He could feel their predicament escalating far too quickly for both of their sakes, "Because I know you're not being straight up with me, dude!"

"And so what if I'm not? You've been pushing me about Wendy all damn day!"

"I need to look out for you, Stan!"

"What the hell for?!"

Their unwarranted back and forth yelling at one another was making Kyle's blood boil to the point where he felt like he was going to burst. Why should it have mattered how much he had been hanging off of Stan all day – all he had been trying to do was make sure that his seemingly ungrateful friend was alright. Just like he _always _had. This last thought made Kyle finally snap.

"Because I'm not going to let you go back to the way you were!"

The exact moment that the last syllable left Kyle's mouth, the two boys fell to silence. Stan's face had instantly softened, immensely shocked by the revelation from his best friend. Trying to ignore all thoughts and recollections of exactly what it was that Kyle was referring to, Stan sighed and beckoned the red-head to start walking with him again.

Gathering all his calmed notions, Stan looked to Kyle with an apologetic smile, "I'm not going to."

Kyle was quiet for a second longer, "It'd be way too hard to go through all that again, dude," he spoke, tightening his grip on the strap of his backpack.

"It can't happen," Stan promised, "I'm too far out the other side."

A million new thoughts were passing their way through Stan's mind. Wendy leaving two years ago had been hard. So, _so_ hard – but something that Stan had eventually figured out was that his emotions of pain were on a level so severe that they actually had the capabilities of hurting many of the people around him, not just himself.

It was all something he hadn't reflected on in a long time. But there was no way in hell that he was going to let it all simmer and bubble back to the surface again just because Wendy was back. He owed Kyle too much for that.

"If I need to talk about anything," the dark haired boy recommenced, "I'll talk to you. Just don't, like, push me or anything, okay, dude?"

Gazing back down at the ground, Kyle forced a small smile. He knew that Stan was right. While it had been so strenuously difficult for the two of them to experience what they had that couple of years earlier, Kyle couldn't let that overwhelm him in this moment now. He needed to trust that if Stan ever needed him, he would say so. That was all he could really do.

Snapping his head back up, Kyle ultimately grinned at Stan, mocking his request not to "push" him as he teasingly shoved him in the shoulder, "Yeah, whatever," he joked, watching him stumble across the footpath.

"God damn it," Stan chuckled, pushing his friend back while the two of them finally continued on their long walk home.

It was the first time all day that Stan had actually felt a little bit better. He had made it through the first school day with Wendy back in South Park and had already experienced just about every negative occurrence possible. Finding out for himself that she was back, repetitively awkward encounters with her, having to change his day-to-day practices just to avoid her, even a fall out with Kyle. As far as the teenage boy was concerned, as long as he continued to avoid her, things couldn't really get much unbearably worse.

But Stan wasn't stupid, either. He knew that this long, high and low, topsy-turvy rollercoaster ride of emotions was far, _far _from over.

* * *

**Hello again friends! I'm very happy to finally be bringing you another new chapter :)**

**What did we all think this time around? It's becoming a bit clearer that Stan isn't quite as cool and collected as he first tried to let off, but what do you think will happen next? Also, what about Kyle and Bebe? Do you think those two will eventually work out? Who knows :)**

**But most importantly, what dramatic event from two years ago has Kyle so worried about Stan falling back into? All will be answered very soon - I promise :)**

**Homecoming is approaching very quickly, you do not want to miss anything that happens! Please leave me a review and let me know what you think so far, I truly would appreciate it :)**

**Till next time guys,**

**Reneyyyyyyyyyy x.**


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